The John H. Jones House is a

Queen Anne-style The Queen Anne style of British architecture refers to either the English Baroque architecture of the time of Queen Anne (who reigned from 1702 to 1714) or the British Queen Anne Revival form that became popular during the last quarter of the ...

house built in

Janesville, Wisconsin Janesville is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. It is the county seat and largest city in the county. It is a principal municipality of the Janesville, Wisconsin, Metropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Madison–Jane ...

in 1890, now carefully restored. In 2007 the house was added to the State Register of Historic Places and to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

the following year. In 1835 the first settlers arrived in what would become Janesville, surrounded by some of the most fertile prairies in the state. The settlement grew in those early years on agricultural and later manufacturing industries. By the late 1800s it traded and processed tobacco from the surrounding farms, and the downtown had grown to span both sides of the Rock River. With John H. Jones was a successful merchant who in 1890 built this house near his business downtown. He didn't build this house as large as some of the professionals and industrialist built over in what is now the Courthouse Hill district, but he chose the same Queen Anne style - popular at the time - and his house is still impressive. The house has a complex roofline, a corner tower, an asymmetric wraparound porch, and varied surface textures, in the clapboard first story versus the shingled second. All of these are hallmarks of Queen Anne style. Of interest in this design are the triangular

pediments Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pediment ...

looking out of the gable peaks and the decorated

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

beneath the

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

. Inside the house, walls are plastered, and most first floor rooms have crown moldings and picture rails. Pocket doors connect many first floor rooms and the parlor features a fireplace. An oak Eastlake-style staircase leads to the second floor. Behind the house sits a 2-story carriage house. After the Joneses left the house in the early 20th century, it became a rental property and fell into disrepair. In 1995 James and Jan Chesmore bought it and began restoration work.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Rock County, Wisconsin Houses in Rock County, Wisconsin Buildings and structures in Janesville, Wisconsin Queen Anne architecture in Wisconsin Houses completed in 1890